Current Six children killed, two others still in critical condition after school party incident in Devonport

[Bunk Moreland]

A Tasmanian community has been rocked by grief after a jumping castle was blown into the air at a Devonport primary school, leaving five children dead and several in hospital.

A police and WorkSafe investigation is underway into the incident, which occurred about 10am on Thursday when the castle lifted about 10 metres into the air. It is unclear how many children were playing on the inflatable castle at the time.

Tasmanian Police Commissioner Darren Hine said the investigation would take some time to complete, and it would later be passed to the coroner for an inquest.

Five children dead, several critical after jumping castle blown into air at Tasmanian primary school

Five children have died and another four are in a critical condition after falling from a jumping castle that was blown into the air at a primary school in Devonport.

www.theage.com.au

Right board for this? Unfortunately it feels like it. How could this happen? Can these be hired and operated by anybody or is there always an operator with them?

It’s estimated the castle was ten metres in the air, which is about 3 storeys. Given the toll I wouldn’t be surprised if it was higher.

 

[Kurve]

Right board for this? Unfortunately it feels like it. How could this happen? Can these be hired and operated by anybody or is there always an operator with them?

It’s estimated the castle was ten metres in the air, which is about 3 storeys. Given the toll I wouldn’t be surprised if it was higher.

So far, I haven't been able to get my head around how this happened. It's absolutely devastating.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

So far, I haven't been able to get my head around how this happened. It's absolutely devastating.

Its incomprehensible. Their last day of primary school. Accidents happen and injuries can result. But… five children killed? Just staggering.

 

[Power Raid]

Terrible event and worst time of the year, when we are celebrating family.

The image of the two devastated cops consoling each other speaks volumes.

 

[cartwright]

This is a terrible tragedy. So many questions, but right now I just want to cry for those families.

 

[metic]

http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDT60801/IDT60801.95960.shtml

Devonport airport weather obs, 10km away.

Can someone post this?

Cant seem to be able to post a screenshot with tapatalk these days.
Ive taken the screenshot of the wind obs .
We can see at 10am the wind changed from south to north (roughly) and increased in strength.
This odd situation maybe what happened, and a freaky local gust blew up.
Wind direction changing (sth to nth ) so abruptly like that is not typical.


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[metic]

Reposted as the previous was blurry..

Sent from my SM-J320ZN using Tapatalk

 

[tenderwarrior]

A Tasmanian community has been rocked by grief after a jumping castle was blown into the air at a Devonport primary school, leaving five children dead and several in hospital.

A police and WorkSafe investigation is underway into the incident, which occurred about 10am on Thursday when the castle lifted about 10 metres into the air. It is unclear how many children were playing on the inflatable castle at the time.

Tasmanian Police Commissioner Darren Hine said the investigation would take some time to complete, and it would later be passed to the coroner for an inquest.

Five children dead, several critical after jumping castle blown into air at Tasmanian primary school

Five children have died and another four are in a critical condition after falling from a jumping castle that was blown into the air at a primary school in Devonport.

www.theage.com.au

Right board for this? Unfortunately it feels like it. How could this happen? Can these be hired and operated by anybody or is there always an operator with them?

It’s estimated the castle was ten metres in the air, which is about 3 storeys. Given the toll I wouldn’t be surprised if it was higher.

Yeah, I wanted to post earlier, but wasn't sure where to put it. Cheers for starting the thread.

With still four children 'critical' I expect that their will be more victims unfortunately.

I have a few friends who will be involved (professionally) in the aftermath, such a hard thing to comprehend.

A very sombre day here in Northern Tas.

 

[pjcrows]

Horrific stuff.

A few years ago I took my young daughter to a fair/charity fundraiser at a nearby homestead. Pony rides, stalls, face painting etc. There were two bouncy castles set up in a more open part of the field - standard practice at a kids event, local operator. One castle was bigger (15ft wide x 10ft high or thereabouts) and another about half the size, the smaller one being attached to the bigger one with low velcro straps. A huge gust of wind came along and lifted the smaller one, with a handful of kids in it, and tipped two of them out. It lifted probably a metre off the ground and no one was hurt but the only thing stopping it was the velcro attachments to the bigger one. The owner detached the smaller one so no one could go on it, but kept operating the bigger one. (Can't comment on how that one was secured as I don't recall).

I imagine these aren't isolated instances.

 

[Kurve]

Its incomprehensible. Their last day of primary school. Accidents happen and injuries can result. But… five children killed? Just staggering.

It's so awful it was hard to look at images from the scene. I'm not sure what those things are supposed to be anchored down with but decent anchoring should have held it. I'm also seeing significant slope in the immediate area and I recognise the ground I'm looking at might not be where the castle originally was but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be sensible to erect a jumping castle on a slope.

Such a horrible thing to happen.

Edit: Looking a bit more into it, the press is reporting it was set up on an oval

 

[Gpop]

I seem to remember something similar happening overseas a few years ago either in the US or Uk.
So very sad for those families and other people involved, their lives will never be the same

 

[Kurve]

Reposted as the previous was blurry..

It's still a bit blurry Met but I had a look and at the time it happened which was 10.00am, there was a directional ESE wind, speed at 7km/h and gust 13km/h which isn't anything out of the ordinary. By 10.30am it had switched to a NW at 13km/h and 17km/h.

 

[HK_Hawk]

I could never imagine this kind of scenario. Who could realistically imagine a whole bouncy castle being lifted to such heights? It’s sad, and I hope we learn from it in order to change the anchoring and supervision of such set ups in the future.

 

[metic]

Here's everything we know about the deadly jumping castle tragedy

A lot remains unknown about the "distressing" and "unthinkably heartbreaking" incident, but there are some things we do know.

www.abc.net.au

"The last front that had gone through was yesterday afternoon. The winds were in the process of going from a southerly to a north-easterly."

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[HK_Hawk]

And vaguely related… I remember as a teen skateboarder being fascinated by a wind sail set up. I grabbed a cotton sheet and stood on it on the deck while holding the opposite edges and setting down our quiet dead end street. I was exhilarated and surprised by the acceleration. My board took off but wasn’t long before the sheet under my feet was caught up in the wheels and sending me unexpectedly head over ass. I wore asphalt on my knees and elbows that day. The point being the unexpected impact of wind energy.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

Here's everything we know about the deadly jumping castle tragedy

A lot remains unknown about the "distressing" and "unthinkably heartbreaking" incident, but there are some things we do know.

www.abc.net.au

"The last front that had gone through was yesterday afternoon. The winds were in the process of going from a southerly to a north-easterly."

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Bureau of Meteorology duty forecaster Anna Forrest said the strongest gust recorded at the airport around the time of the incident was only 22 kilometres per hour, "which is not atypical for the area and wouldn't be considered extremely strong".

"It's a fairly light wind," she said.

"The last front that had gone through was yesterday afternoon. The winds were in the process of going from a southerly to a north-easterly.

"They were all around the 20 kilometre an hour mark, so nothing horrible was reported at the airport, but obviously had horrible consequences for the site."

Ms Forrest said the wind would have felt like getting in your car, driving 22kph and putting your hand out the window.

"It's quite mild. Before anyone in the bureau would call it strong [wind], it has to get to 46 kilometres an hour," she said.

——

Doesn’t really shed any light. Mystery.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

I seem to remember something similar happening overseas a few years ago either in the US or Uk.
So very sad for those families and other people involved, their lives will never be the same

The ABC article above mentioned a couple of incidents overseas where it’s happened and a child has been killed. Nothing on this scale however.

 

[Kurve]

The ABC article above mentioned a couple of incidents overseas where it’s happened and a child has been killed. Nothing on this scale however.

There seems to be a lot of the castle's material scattered about at the scene, could it have exploded like the one in the UK?

It's not common but fatal incidents involving jumping castles have happened overseas.

Two children were killed and 20 other people injured in central China in 2019 when a jumping castle was blown into the sky by a dust devil.

In the UK in 2018, a jumping castle reportedly exploded at a beach, killing a child.

Also in the UK, a jumping castle blew away at a fairground and killed a seven-year-old child. Two workers were convicted of manslaughter by gross negligence over the death.

 

[metic]

Bureau of Meteorology duty forecaster Anna Forrest said the strongest gust recorded at the airport around the time of the incident was only 22 kilometres per hour, "which is not atypical for the area and wouldn't be considered extremely strong".

"It's a fairly light wind," she said.

"The last front that had gone through was yesterday afternoon. The winds were in the process of going from a southerly to a north-easterly.

"They were all around the 20 kilometre an hour mark, so nothing horrible was reported at the airport, but obviously had horrible consequences for the site."

Ms Forrest said the wind would have felt like getting in your car, driving 22kph and putting your hand out the window.

"It's quite mild. Before anyone in the bureau would call it strong [wind], it has to get to 46 kilometres an hour," she said.

——

Doesn’t really shed any light. Mystery.

"Doesn’t really shed any light. Mystery".

Disagree; this was pointed out yesterday.
Keen weather sleuths can see where the rogue gust came from.
Just because the "Bureau of Meteorology duty forecaster" (who ive never heard of) hasnt experienced this before, and pointed it out.
Winds dont usually go from sth to north nor east, and then blow up in strength.
To me its understandable what happened.
The devils in the detail.

 

[metic]

The wind forecast for devonport airport yesterday from willyweather . Com
Showing here the forecast and also real time recording (in red).
The realtime wind was stronger than forecasted.
Nothing noteworthy here, not much to see , in fact just a light wind morning.

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[metic]

Can see the strength increase after 9- 10 am on the Devonport willyweather site.
Note; winds stronger than forecasted.

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[JackNah_8]

What an awful incident. So many unanswered questions.

Feel for the families and friends

 

[Paul Kersey]

Devastating news.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

"Doesn’t really shed any light. Mystery".

Disagree; this was pointed out yesterday.
Keen weather sleuths can see where the rogue gust came from.
Just because the "Bureau of Meteorology duty forecaster" (who ive never heard of) hasnt experienced this before, and pointed it out.
Winds dont usually go from sth to north nor east, and then blow up in strength.
To me its understandable what happened.
The devils in the detail.

Yeah I dunno, why would you listen to a BOM forecaster, what would they know.

 

[westking]

Yeah I dunno, why would you listen to a BOM forecaster, what would they know.

Its a service that has had cutbacks inflicted upon it. I for one do not trust the BOM for any detailed forecasting anymore and I work in an industry that is reliant on the information they produce every time I go to work. I am in no way blaming the duty forecaster here. Not their fault. They are working within the limitations imposed by the budget that has been imposed upon them.